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<p dir="ltr">Hi all, <br>
Overall I thought the exam pretty easy from my initial skim read. No huge horror questions like we've seen in recent years. But my one main issue is with this 1NF question. My simplest response to this question is "why?". Isn't normalising to 1NF unnecessary
and bad practice? Isn't it ideal to design databases to be 3NF compliant in the first instance? Why bother with this step? Is the purpose of this question to merely see if students instance what 1NF is? At least it was only 3 marks and not 6 or 8 like other
years. I thought the next question was great though... Asking the student to discuss the benefits of normalisation... So even if they couldn't demonstrate the process they had the chance to show that they may have grasped the concept of normalisation, which
I think is ideal at this level. It's not supposed to be a computer science degree.
<br>
Anyway that's my thoughts. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Michael </p>
<div class="x_quote">On 7 Nov 2014 16:55, "itapps-request@edulists.com.au" <itapps-request@edulists.com.au> wrote:<br type="attribution">
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Today's Topics:<br>
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1. IT Apps Exam, Short Answer, Question 7A (Vear, Gary D)<br>
2. Re: Boolean? (Robert Hind)<br>
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Message: 1<br>
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2014 04:58:36 +0000<br>
From: "Vear, Gary D" <vear.gary.d@edumail.vic.gov.au><br>
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] IT Apps Exam, Short Answer, Question 7A<br>
To: "Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List"<br>
<itapps@edulists.com.au><br>
Message-ID:<br>
<378D22CADE5779489ED918EF122958395CA67F04@EDUMBX03.education.vic.gov.au><br>
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"<br>
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Hi all,<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Not sure I like this question at all. Normalising to 1NF sounds simple enough, particularly when students are required to use just one set of sample records, but this seems like it requires a lot for 3 marks:<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Choosing the first record (fancy_cat), here's what I think would be required for full marks:<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
userName fullName interestGroup contactList<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas love_planes paperclip55<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas love_planes panic_disco<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas love_planes starwarsfan<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas love_planes melanie_franks<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas love_planes WalterEllison27<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas classOf2104 paperclip56<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas classOf2105 panic_disco<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas classOf2106 starwarsfan<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas classOf2107 melanie_franks<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas classOf2108 WalterEllison28<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas cooking_rox paperclip57<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas cooking_rox panic_disco<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas cooking_rox starwarsfan<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas cooking_rox melanie_franks<br>
fancy_cat Francine Ulas cooking_rox WalterEllison29<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
That's 15 individual records students would have to write out, unless I'm mistaken. Will students be penalised if they do the sensible thing and normalise this data to 2NF by creating separate tables?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
I thought I understood normalising to 1NF, but perhaps I'm wrong. The addition of that 4th field (contactList) has seemingly made this a big challenge (15 lines of writing) for just 3 marks.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
I'd appreciate feedback/corrections from others on this question, since it has me somewhat confused.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<br>
Gary<br>
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Message: 2<br>
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2014 16:53:35 +1100<br>
From: "Robert Hind" <robert@yinnar.com><br>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Boolean?<br>
To: "Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List"<br>
<itapps@edulists.com.au><br>
Message-ID: <41F16DD5882A4625B3D0A9409DBF7BC4@robertPC><br>
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<br>
Please no! Boolean is True/False. <br>
<br>
Could use it for male/female if the effective question was "are you male?"<br>
<br>
But of course that rules out transgender people as does the M/F dichotomy.<br>
<br>
Please let us stick to "correct" usage of Boolean. <br>
<br>
Robert Hind<br>
Retired<br>
Ex Traralgon and Ashwood<br>
----- Original Message ----- <br>
From: Christopher Jansen .<br>
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List <br>
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2014 3:06 PM<br>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Boolean?<br>
<br>
<br>
I think you can use boolean as a data type to describe any field with just two options..
<br>
<br>
I would say you can use it for male / female... It would make the database more efficient.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Thanks, <br>
<br>
Chris<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
From: itapps-bounces@edulists.com.au [<a href="mailto:itapps-bounces@edulists.com.au">mailto:itapps-bounces@edulists.com.au</a>] On Behalf Of Simone Tynan<br>
Sent: Friday, 7 November 2014 2:25 PM<br>
To: itapps@edulists.com.au<br>
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] Boolean?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Hi everyone.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Is it safe to talk yet??<br>
<br>
I have told my students that boolean data type is ?true/false?. We discussed how M or F (male or female) is text, not boolean.
<br>
<br>
The exam, question 5 has Travel-style or Business-style (T or B) as boolean. Have I taught my students incorrectly?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
With thanks,<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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